A commotion arose among the refugees. Ling Xiao spat out the grass root in his mouth, and then heard the system say:
"You'll soon be meeting Yan Xun. To avoid repeating past mistakes, you could consider making Yan Xun fall in love with you and going against your family..."
"And then be controlled by the Duke's mansion, your life and death in their hands, or in the hands of a hesitant, fickle, and indecisive scoundrel?"
"This is so frustrating," Ling Xiao said, raising an eyebrow. "I'd rather just stab that bastard to death."
She was almost in tears. "You can't do this! He's the Crown Prince's cousin; his status is very important. What if the Crown Prince retaliates against you when he becomes emperor?"
Ling Xiao interrupted him in surprise, "What makes you think the Crown Prince can become Emperor?"
The system stammered, "...Isn't that right? The Crown Prince is the next emperor; he's the most capable, the other princes can't compare."
"Putting aside the fact that few crown princes in history have actually become emperors, how could someone like the old emperor in the original timeline possibly trust the crown prince, especially since he's the son of a concubine who once framed his true love? You're seriously underestimating the old emperor."
You mean?
Ling Xiao sneered, "I'm afraid the Crown Prince's fate won't be much better."
So what do we do now?
“I will acknowledge him as my father!” Ling Xiao said decisively. She was very pragmatic; she knew she was no match for a Duke’s mansion in her current state of “being powerless to even kill a chicken.”
But it doesn't matter, Zhao Ruyan's father is the emperor!
The system saw Ling Xiao grab two handfuls of mud and smear it on his face, then head towards the porridge distribution area.
A seemingly unassuming carriage had just stopped there, and the servants driving it unloaded more than a dozen bags of rice, preparing to cook porridge.
"Host, have you changed your mind again? That's Yan Xun's carriage!"
"I haven't changed my mind," Ling Xiao explained in his mind. "Do you think a refugee could possibly get in touch with the emperor in the palace? He can't even see his own father, so what's the point of acknowledging him as one? This is just preliminary preparation."
Just as the system was about to speak, the carriage door opened, and Yan Xun stepped out.
Yan Xun looked up at the emaciated refugees, his brow furrowed, his eyes filled with pity. He turned to his servants and said:
"Put extra rice in the porridge each day so they can have a full meal."
The servants praised the prince's benevolence, but in their hearts they thought that it would be more economical to buy some bran and coarse rice instead of rice.
The Duke's mansion allocated a fixed amount of money to buy rice for distributing porridge. The refugees ate the rice, but only those at the front of the line were lucky enough to get some.
Yan Xun nodded, and suddenly a woman rushed in front of him and collapsed weakly.
The servants were terrified and tried to drive them away. There weren't many of them, and if the refugees offended the young master, they would be in big trouble when they returned to the manor.
Yan Xun stopped the servants, frowning as he asked, "Is the young lady hungry? I'll have someone bring some porridge."
The woman raised her head, revealing a face patchy with black and white markings, filthy. "No, I'm not hungry. I've come to ask you, sir, to help me find my family."
Before Yan Xun could speak, the servant beside him said arrogantly:
"You ignorant woman! So many refugees have left their homes and fled their villages. Your relatives are probably all dead, or even if they are, they're hard to find."
Ling Xiao's eyes darkened. In the original timeline, these servants looked down on Zhao Ruyan's status and caused her a lot of suffering.
"My father is Zhao Xueyi, the Prefect of Jinling. But because of my awkward social status, I have always been raised by other people's families. Who knew..."
Oh... they all understood. This woman was probably not a concubine, which was why she was being kept outside the home.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
